NIGERIA: IRIN News Briefs [19991027]

NIGERIA: IRIN News Briefs, 27 October

Eight out of 10 prisoners await trial

More than 80 percent of inmates await trial in squalid
conditions in overcrowded prisons, according to a report
on Monday on state-run Nigeria Television Authority
(NTA) based on a visit to prisons in the southeast.

According to the report, virtually all the prisons visited
were old and overcrowded: one cell in Onitsha prison
was the size of a classroom but held 60 to 80 inmates,
all under the age of 16.

The prisons have more than twice the number of inmates
they were built for and over 80 percent of the detainees
are awaiting trial, some for more than 10 years, NTA
reported.

Primary teachers agree to end strike

Nigeria's primary school teachers agreed on Tuesday
to end a five-week strike over salary arrears after
a meeting in Abuja between the Nigerian Union of Teachers
(NUT) and President Olusegun Obasanjo, news organisations
reported.

At the meeting, the government agreed to pay outstanding
wages for January to March and for August by the end
of November, while the teachers agreed to return to
classes next week, according to news reports.

Central Bank allows oil companies to sell foreign exchange

Oil companies are now free to sell their foreign exchange
on the open market, Radio Nigeria reported on Monday.
In a circular to oil companies and banks in Lagos,
the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said that it had
reviewed the regulation that required the firms to
sell foreign exchange only to the CBN. However, the
CBN will continue to supervise the sales.

Shell to invest US $1 billion

Royal Dutch/Shell is to spend US$1 billion to develop
an off-shore oilfield which would come onstream in
2002 and produce up to 120,000 bd, the BBC reported
on Monday.

The oilfield, some 90 km from the coast, was discovered
in 1965 but only became economically viable recently
with the development of new drilling technology. The
latest move is evidence of a shift by oil companies
to off-shore operations following a spate of unrest
and demonstrations by activists demanding a share in
the oil wealth of south-eastern Nigeria, the BBC reported
analysts as saying.

Tighter rules for private telecoms firms

Nigeria's government on Tuesday announced tighter rules
for private telecommunications companies, banning them
from offering international services and increasing
fees for mobile operators, news organisations reported
on Tuesday.

A minimum fee of US $500 million was set by the government
as a requirement from any investor seeking a licence
to run Global System of Mobile Communication (GSM),
'The Guardian' reported.

It said the government had voided all existing licences
for GSM and named the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited
(NITEL) and the Nigerian Mobile Telecommunications
Limited (M.Tel), both state firms, as the first two
beneficiaries of GSM licences under the new policy.

According to Reuters, a key aim of the new policy is
to block private companies that have invested in providing
international services, and get them to integrate their
facilities with NITEL.

Communications Minister Mohammed Arzika said at the
launch of the national telecommunications policy that
the changes would help Nigeria meet its aim of adding
two million fixed lines and 1.2 million mobile lines
over the next two years. Nigeria has some 500,000 connected
lines for a population of more than 108 million people,
Reuters said.

Arzika announced the new policy even though the House
of Representatives had asked Obasanjo to hold it for
at least one month to allow for a public hearing, 'The
Guardian' reported.

Government supports Transparency International report

Transparency International (TI) has named Nigeria as
the second most corrupt of the 99 countries it studied
in a report issued on Tuesday, with Cameroon in first
place.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo said in a statement
that he had no objections to the poll's results, which
show how big a challenge his administration is facing
and addressing. He said he hoped the report "will
spur" the National Assembly to expedite action
on his anti-corruption bill, AFP reported.

Unemployed pilots give foreign pilots 28-day ultimatum

A group of unemployed pilots, under the name of the
Association of Unemployed Pilots in Nigeria, has told
foreign pilots to leave the country within 28 days
or else their lives could be endangered, 'Today' newspaper
reported.

The Association issued the ultimatum in a letter dated
18 October, titled "Warning to all foreign pilots
in Nigeria", and sent to aviation companies including
Bristow Helicopters, Pan Africa, Harka, Chanchangi
and Bellview, according to 'Today'.

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